January 26th, 2018

Digital Marketing Prediction 2018

Are you wondering how social media marketing will change this year? Need some fresh ideas? This article might be able to help.

#1: Instagram

If you still haven’t jumped on the bandwagon, you really should. It is a good way to get brand awareness and grow followers. Across the globe, there are over 800 million Instagrammers — more than 500 million of whom use Instagram every single day, sharing more than 250 million pieces of content each day. If you have a good image and use the right hashtag, you will draw much attention and attract the people you want.

If you compare to Facebook, Instagram is still relatively cheaper to grow followers. We think that 2018 might be the last year where the overall cost to grow followers is still low.

#2: Facebook

Facebook is a good way to build community, but if your Facebook strategy is to chase Like, it is the wrong approach. What makes a page successful and keep attracting viewers is the quality of your content and its context. If they like your content, they will come back. Likes are expensive. It costs an average of HK$30 per Like.

Facebook is for mature audience, at least in Hong Kong. The average age of Facebook user is 35. People at this age or older refrain from Liking posts, while still logging in every day to see what is going on with their friends or see what their favourite brands are promoting. You will be wasting your effort chasing Likes when your target audience doesn’t like to leave trails on social media.

#3: Media Personalities

Call them KOLs, influencers or media personalities. If you don’t already know them, you should.

Akina Fong 方健儀 you will recognise her from TVB evening news a few years back. Akina is a very experienced journalist who worked for RTHK and TVB News. After six years with TVB News, she became the Senior Information Officer, News at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). Now she does various freelance projects, ranging from event MC, writing column articles and creating online content with different media and brands. She is such a versatile personality that she can switch topics from geopolitics to lifestyle. Brands love to work with her because of her journalism background and professionalism.

Pomato 小薯茄 produces numerous funny short videos. They are a team of four who graduated from film studies and decided to set up their own production company. The four of them are usually the key characters in their videos, think early days James Corden, but younger with high local relevance. They have over 57,000 followers on Facebook.

WHIZOO has over 110,000 followers on Facebook. They are a media brand on Facebook; think the early days of 100毛, but more lifestyle-focused and without print. Every Friday night they do a one-hour Facebook Live show discussing different topics that are very relatable to the audience in their 20’s.

#4: Live Broadcast on Social Media

People love to go to live concerts or theatres. If tickets sold out or you cannot be there physically, would you be willing to pay to watch live broadcast online? We see that monetising live online broadcast or Facebook Live will be something entertainment sector might develop. Instead of watching for free, viewers will have to pay a fee, register or play a quick game so brands can build their database further, another way to connect with the target market.

#5: Payment Application

Small online stores that operate on Facebook or Instagram will find new payment applications like HSBC’s PayMe very useful. PayMe is designed for HSBC customers to pay their friends swiftly and hassle-free. Facebook has always wanted to launch a payment system but till now it is not available. Setting up online payment with credit card companies is not cheap. PayMe is easy to use and it can transfer money to different banks and most credit cards, it has potential to be big. If popularity continues to grow, HSBC can monetise it through placing ads in the application. PayMe is an application worth paying attention to since many bank with HSBC in Hong Kong.